COVID 19, ITS CHALLENGES AND OPPERTUNITIES FOR
MEDICAL SECTOR
Introduction
The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable disease that has not been
previously identified in humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced COVID19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 has posed an
enormous challenge to the healthcare sector, particularly in developing countries such as
Nepal.
Global condition
COVID-19 was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Within a month, the pandemic
had a negative impact on global economies and societies worldwide. Public healthcare is
suffering an unprecedented challenge due to the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale. The
WHO advised Southeast Asia to take prompt and suitable public health initiatives to control the
increased transmission rate and pandemic situation. However, in the last five months, both the
infection rate and death rate from COVID-19 have been escalating in the South Asian region,
particularly in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Nepal.
The total number of cases have reached 64 million with 1.5 million deaths.
In Nepal, the index case was reported on 24 January 2020. In Nepal total cases are 236 thousand
with more than 1500 deaths.
Challenges in Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic Public health
The healthcare system of Nepal is mostly unregulated and comprises four cohorts including
Government, private sector, non-Governmental organizations or NGOs and international
development organizations. This paper highlights the socioeconomic and critical challenges
faced by Nepal during the COVID-19 pandemic.Nepal had a severe scarcity of COVID-19
testing kits and some experts have questioned the efficiency of the available testing kits because
of their high rate of false-negative results. The economic recession brought by covid 19
prevention lockdown and huge expenditure of the government on Covid 19 management crippled
the economy and government decided to be unable to afford the treatment of covid 19 patients.
But after nationwide protest, government was complained to take back its decision.
First and foremost, the limited infrastructure and capability of government institution to provide
COVID 19 treatment and huge cost of its treatment in the private sector has become the major
challenge. The huge cost of COVID ICU taken by the private sector and inability of the
government to make proper policy and regularity in the treatment protocol and cost has made the
public disappointed. Most of the private institution have used his period and opportunity to make
major economic profit at such prime hours of need.
Second, the Government of Nepal struggles to manage the population of the capital city,
Kathmandu, where more than 20 thousand people live per square kilometer. Consequently,
effective enforcement of social distancing is an impossible task for the law and enforcement
departments in Nepal. Also the huge pressure of COVID 19 cases in the hospital have challenged
the health care instituions to ensure proper management of such patients.
Third, the healthcare situation in Nepal is worsening because of the increasing number of
COVID-19 infected patients. Because of increasing patient numbers, health care centers and
hospitals are becoming a source of COVID-19 transmission. At present, the most challenging
issue is to ensure ICU and ventilator support in the community or rural clinics and the supply of
oxygen-cylinders to hospitals. Therefore, the increasing number ofCOVID-19 cases and the
sudden high demand for oxygen-cylinders have put enormous pressure on the healthcare system.
The need to ensure adequate supply from local manufacturers or the need to import from other
countries is urgently needed.
Fourth, the lack of coordination among the policymakers, healthcare professionals and law
enforcement departments has been heavily criticized. Scholars and researchers have emphasized
the need for instant, supportive collaboration among the central and local Government authorities
including the healthcare workforce, along three other sectors (e.g. private, NGOs and the foreign
aid organizations) to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal.
Fifth, We have noticed increased cases of psychological issues, anxiety, depression, selfharm, suicide and Post traumatic stress disorders among COVID-19 affected as well as
infected population that are linked to uncertainty about the pandemic, social isolation, financial
burden and loss of loved ones among many other reasons.
Finally, some socioeconomic challenges are noteworthy such as the incorrect perception and
rumors about COVID-19, lack of proper health education, digital interventions and lack of IT
literacy, unemployment rates and suicides.
Opportunities with COVID 19 in heath sector
There is an opportunity for our policy makers and politicians to identify the gaps in mental
health policies and develop a robust health system having referral and supporting system to reach
out at the community level.
The pandemic has also shown that the use of technology and introduction of telemedicine
system to provide support to patients and their families remotely by consultation with
specialists through phone calls, videos is very useful.
Medical education was not an exception in being affected by this pandemic. All the medical
institutions in Nepal very quickly embraced the concept of online education and gave
continuity to teaching learning activities that prevented undue delay in the educational
endeavors of medical students. Faculties were very flexible to adopt newer methods of teaching
through the internet within a short span of time. This in itself could bring a paradigm shift in
medical education which may continue in the foreseeable future.
This pandemic has alarmed the government, policy makers and public health experts to find
gaps in the national and regional health system and bridge it with proper planning to combat
similar outbreaks which may happen in future. There has been great strides forward in this
regard in Nepal. The government has been working hard to control the disease, but there is still a
lot to be done. There is still much to improve and many potholes to be filled. The road that
COVID-19 has laid is a rough one, but it is a road nonetheless. It is up to all of us to decide how
we want to pave it.
Conclusions
Despite the Governmental initiatives in place, much more could have been done much earlier
with short, medium and long-term strategic plans put in effect. COVID-19 has taught every
nation, including Nepal a lesson regarding the importance of effective healthcare planning and
preparations to deal with any future pandemic. Social distancing is a deterrent, but lockdowns
can be detrimental to the national economy. Effective coordination among the Government
policymakers and the local healthcare workforce is necessary to ensure emergency health
services can deal with the pandemic more effectively.